NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF TIMOR-LESTE PRESENTS CREDENTIALS TO DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UNOG

26 August 2013

Marciano Octavio Garcia Da Silva, the new Permanent Representative of Timor-Leste to the United Nations Office at Geneva, today presented his credentials to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Prior to his appointment to Geneva, Mr. Da Silva served as Director-General for Regional Integration and Acting Director-General for External Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Timor-Leste since 2010. In this capacity, he represented Timor-Leste in meetings of the Regional Forum of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. From 2005 to 2010, Mr. Da Silva served as Counselor at the Embassy of Timor-Leste to the European Union and to Belgium in Brussels. Mr. Da Silva started his career as a diplomat following the independence of Timor-Leste in 2002 and worked first as a Desk Officer for the Indonesia Bilateral Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation from 2002 to 2003, and then as Director of the Multilateral Division in the Ministry from 2003 to 2005, where he regularly participated in meetings of the United Nations General Assembly.

Mr. Da Silva is a founding member of the National Resistance of Timor-Leste Students, the students’ organization founded in Indonesia to support the struggle for the independence of Timor-Leste. He has a degree in linguistics and English literature from Udayana University in Bali, Indonesia (1994). He has attended diplomatic training courses in Dili, Timor-Leste (2000), Oslo, Norway (2001), and in Washington, United States (2001).

Mr. Da Silva was born on 21 March, 1963 in Dili, Timor-Leste. He is married with three children.